Sample Essay On Primary Data

Introduction

For businesses and organizations to maximize their potential and satisfy their clients, it has become very important for them to conduct research. The procedure for collecting, analyzing and decoding data collected about a specific market, or a service and product offered in exchange for money in the same market, or the past, current and future players and consumers in a particular market is referred to as market research. In a broader perspective market research is the delving deeper to understand spending habits, characteristics, geographic location and other needs of a business’ potential clients, its competitors and the industry as a whole.
In market research data, one could either use primary or secondary data. Primary data is information collected by researchers from scratch for a specific reason. The data is collected directly from respondents; it is raw data that is gathered for a specific reason by researchers. On the other hand, secondary data is obtained from data that already exists and has been provided in the form of reports. Researchers study such reports to obtain secondary data (Katsirikou, 2010).

Primary data is collected through primary research. Researchers carry out primary research to find out responses to specific areas of investigation or questions. Primary data can be collected both qualitatively and quantitatively. Qualitatively it can be collected through: focus group discussion, in-depth interviews, and ethnographies. Quantitatively it can be collected through random face-to-face, one-on-one interviews, either in-home or randomly in the streets. The above data collection methods include: running experiments, observing respondents and recording the observations, holding interviews to ask questions about areas of interest in the study.

Advantages

Primary data enables a researcher to customize a study to a desired end
It enables the researcher to pay attention to specific issues pertaining to a study
It gives the researcher confidence on the quality of the results because they can control the quality of the data collection

Disadvantages

Primary data collection can be very costly
It is very time-consuming (Mooi et al., 2011).

Secondary data

Secondary data is collected from secondary research. Researchers do not collect original or first-hand data but depend on previous researchers' interview recording, survey results and outcomes from experiments.
Advantages
The main advantages of secondary data are that secondary research is relatively inexpensive and fast. This makes it very easy to compare data over a specific period and even trend it.

Disadvantages

Information collected from secondary research may be inaccurate, too vague or outdated
Collecting secondary data may be time consuming as a research might have to spend a lot of time perusing through data that is irrelevant to get to the irrelevant data (Mooi et al., 2011).

Key formulas used in statistics

The mean, mode, median and standard deviation are important formulas when performing statistical analysis on a given data.
Mean and Weighted Average
The mean/average is derived by summing up a number of observations and dividing the sum by the total number of observations. The mean can be considered a good estimate for determining subsequent points of data despite some points falling below, above or on the mean.

Median

The middle figure of a set of data comprising an odd number of figures or the mean of the two middle values of an even set of numbers is referred to as the median. The median is used when separating data into two sets of equal size.

Mode

The mode is the value/number that occurs most often in a set of data (Stamatis, 2012).
Application
The above statistical formulas can be used to determine the most suitable way of describing a set of data. For example, if the points in a specific set of data are relatively close, the average of that set of data would be useful in determining which values are closest to each other. Also, if a set of values fall close to each other but there is a random value that differs greatly, mode can be used to best describe this set of data. The median is best used where there is an interest in the range of values that a system is operating in (Stamatis, 2012.

Standard Deviation and Weighted Standard Deviation

Standard deviation is used to give a reflection of close a particular set of data is in relation to the average value. Small standard deviation in a set of data depicts precise data while large standard deviation shows data that is spread out. The standard deviation is obtained by finding out the square root of the variance of a set of data. Weighted standard deviation is obtained by associating standard deviation values with the weighted averages (Stamatis, 2012).

Customer satisfaction analysis report

Inconsistency between profitability and customer satisfaction scores and why it tends to exist in health care organizations.
Emphasis on customer satisfaction is essential because it provides business owners and marketers with a metric that they can use in managing, improving and monitoring their businesses. It is crucial in various ways including:

It’s an indicator of consumer purchase intentions and loyalty

Reduces customer churn
Reduces negative word of mouth
Increases customer lifetime value
It’s a point of differentiation
Consequently, high customer satisfaction scores are widely believed to have a direct co-relation to profitability due to increased customer loyalty that secures revenue in the future, this is, however, not always the case.
Pursuit of customer satisfaction increases on costs hence reducing the profitability of the business. The relationship between customer satisfaction and economics is viewed as negative in economics; this is because it is a utility that is modeled through product attributes. For example, an increase in the level of utility means: upgrading the raw material used, adjusting features on the service personnel, increasing product attributes that translate to increased costs. This contributes to diminishing returns to the efforts made. This is no different from customer satisfaction in hospitals, where acquiring the high customer satisfaction scores means increased costs; hence cutting down on profitability (Boone, 2012).
Price vs. quality of services as well as the impact of insurance or managed care contracts on a hospital's market share, regardless of patient satisfaction levels.
Price and quality are some of the most important factors in brand positioning. The price tag has been proven to often be the first thing that a customer would look at before making a purchase decision. It is however not automatically true that lower prices automatically translate to higher sales, for some premium products, the opposite is true.
Managed care contracts in a health care market provide incentives that affect the treatment patterns by providers for both non-managed and managed care patients. Managed care control eliminates or manages moral hazards in medical care. It may also assume financial incentives to change the behaviour of providers. These managed care organizations in a hospital market could lead to competitive pressure that affects the treatment provided to patients market-wide. Managed care organizations are able offer cheaper premiums than insurers who already exist by hence increasing a hospital’s market share regardless of the patient’s satisfaction levels (Tuong, 2013).
How to use high patient satisfaction results to your advantage when negotiating a new managed care contract for the hospital. Discuss ethical issues involved when presenting results.
Managed healthcare involves: post-hospital care in case hospitalization is limited to a short stay, preventive programs and services available, programs that help patients suffering from chronic diseases, emergency care affordable costs among others. A hospital with high patient satisfaction results is likely to have all the above programs and services in place which are essential in managed healthcare.
When a hospital presents its high patient satisfaction results during negotiations for a new managed care contract for the hospital, ethical issues may be involved, for example, the credibility of the high patient satisfaction results. Questions like, who conducted the interviews? Were they random? Were they free from bias? Need to be answered before a hospital is given the contract (Tuong, 2013).

How to use qualitative and quantitative data to help this hospital improve market share.

Qualitative data helps the hospital understand patients' attitudes, opinions, feelings, and behaviors. This would give them raw feedback that is necessary to understand customer needs. When the customers are satisfied, it leads to loyalty and therefore increased consumers. This directly results in increased market share.
Quantitative data on the other hand involves a lot of numerical figures therefore can be analyzed in various ways to provide insightful information. Also, quantitative data is more on point; devoid of subjectivity that may arise out of subjectivity that may arise from analysis of qualitative data. Quantitative data can therefore be used to get actual market share hence inform strategic decisions of a hospital in amendment of programs and policies thus increasing its customer base and further improving its market share (Tuong, 2013).

References

Boone, L. (2012). Contemporary marketing, 2013 update. S.l.: Cengage learning custom p.
Katsirikou, A. (2010). Qualitative and quantitative methods in libraries theory and applications : Proceedings of the International Conference on QQML2009, Chania, Crete, Greece, 26-29 May 2009. Singapore: World Scientific.
Mooi, E., & Sarstedt, M. (2011). A concise guide to market research the process, data, and methods using IBM SPSS statistics. Berlin: Springer.
Stamatis, D. (2012). Essential statistical concepts for the quality professional. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press.
Tuong, N. (2013). Essentials of Marketing A case of health care services in HCMC (1. Aufl. ed.). Saarbrücken: LAP LAMBERT Academic Publishing.